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BattleMeshV8

We would like to give to the 'Battle of the Mesh' the flavor of a tournament with a social character. If you are a mesh networking enthusiast, community networking activist, or have an interest in mesh networks you might find this bunch of crazy folks gathering for the Wireless Battle of the Mesh V8 very interesting. This event is also an opportunity to meet developers from the most popular open source mesh protocol implementations (Babel, B.A.T.M.A.N. L3 and L2, BMX6, IEEE 802.11s, OLSR) and watch their ideas compete. If you have implemented an interesting mesh protocol capable of running on OpenWrt Chaos Calmer (14.07) you can take part in the tournament too.

When

The event takes place on the following dates: 3rd - 9th August 2015

Note: This date precedes CCC (13th-17th August) in Germany, offering an excellent opportunity to combine travels from all over the world first to Slovenia and then to Germany for an extended period of great events. Travel from Maribor to Zehdenick (near Berlin) is feasible with night train(39EUR+) or flying from Graz airport(90EUR+), sometimes coach/carsharing options also available.

Where

The BattleMeshV8 will be held at Maribor, Slovenia. The testing / hacking / talks will take place in Dom Obrambe Pekre It features one large dining hall with an attached smaller hall for talks, a large lecture theater, several smaller classrooms and an outdoor auditorium. Expect to find nice community WiFi internet connection (open.wlan-si.net), video projectors, beverage and snack supplies and some curious hackers.

Dom Obrambe Pekre consists of two larger halls, several classrooms and offices. It is an ex-military school now ran by the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief and used as a Civil protection base, firefighter education base and is the headquarters of Slovenian Ham-Radio Association. Placed on the outskirts of Maribor under the Pohorje mountain it is surrounded by a large open area and vineyards, offering a very nice environment for setting-up indoor and outdoor WiFi test setups. During the summer time the outdoor auditorium is a very nice setting for some hacking in the sun, a football match in the afternoon and a barbeque in the evening. The location has a nearby city bus stop in about 15 min walk away from the ski-resort with plenty accommodation options.

Some first impressions

Accommodation and Food Supply

Plenty accommodation options are available in the ski-resort part of the town Maribor under Pohorje mountain. A pleasant area in all seasons offers accommodation, restaurants and plenty outdoor recreation facilities.

Click will take you to google maps.

Hostel

Hotel Milena is a family run hotel under mountain Pohorje for which the accommodation is offered in a package. Rooms are for 2-4 people, some rooms have a double bed only. In the case of a large number of participants some accommodation will be in the neighboring hotels as well. Breakfast included.

There is a 15min walk to the conference venue.

Early bird for 6 nights (August 3rd to 9th) was 150EUR, now 175EUR.

For any additional information, requests and inquiries get in touch with the local organization team: battlemeshv8 at wlan-si.net

Camping

Camping Kekec is a camping place in the vicinity of Hotel Milena, all the usual camping amnesties available. No breakfast included. There are shops nearby.

There is an 18min walk to the conference venue.

Early bird for 6 nights (August 3rd to 9th) was 45EUR, now 55EUR.

For any additional information, requests and inquiries get in touch with the local organization team: battlemeshv8 at wlan-si.net

If you need an invoice, or can not make the payment through bank transfer and would like to do it via paypal, please get in touch: battlemeshv8 at wlan-si.net

Of course, this package is not compulsory. You can also find your own bed and food supply yourself during the event if you wish to do so. There are a number of hostel and hotels available, but keep in mind that they tend to be rather booked during summer.

Directions

There are several ways to get to Maribor city.

Airport

There are plenty options to travel to Maribor by plane as there are several major Airports within 1-2h driving distance.

Soon we will appoint a community member to help you with travel arrangements.

Maribor - Edvard Rusjan airport

Closest international airport in Maribor located a few kilometers outside the city, with one regular connection Adria Airways to London Southend, starting in June, apart from that only charters and flying sports activities.

Ljubljana - Jože Pučnik Airport

The Ljubljana Airport - Jozeta Pucnika with multiple international daily routes and frequented by low-cost airlines EasyJet (London) and Wizzair (London, Brussles). Note that there are very frequent flights to/from Istanbul, Turkey, you may find a good deal if arriving from other parts of the world via that airport.

The airport is about 100km from Maribor, that takes about 1h by car. You can travel to Maribor by Shuttle bus, by Shuttle bus to Ljubljana train station and then take a train to Maribor.

Graz airport, Austria

Graz airport is just across the from Maribor about 40km driving distance. Best option for arriving from most cities in EU.

You can travel to Maribor from a nearby train station in under an hour, there may be shuttle services available.

Klagenfurt airport, Austria

Zagreb airport, Croatia

Vienna, Austria

Flying to Vienna is also an option, there are shuttle bus services to Maribor.

Train

You can travel to Maribor with different international trains. There are direct connections available with Zagreb (CRO), Rijeka (CRO), Graz (A), and Vienna (A). On some lines it is necessary to change trains in Ljubljana or Zidani Most. Nearby Pragersko, which has good train services with Maribor, also enables fast train connections with Budapest (H) and Venice(I).

Traveling by train around Slovenia can be very comfortable. It is possible to travel along the railway tracks from Ljubljana to Maribor in a little less than two hours. Trains of varied quality and class prices links Maribor also with a number of other Slovene places. See Slovenian railways website.

Bus

Maribor is connected to Zagreb (CRO), Graz (A), Belgrade (YU), Amsterdam (NL) Rotterdam (NL) and most places in Germany by regular international bus lines. Otherwise Slovene towns are connected by regular bus services to Austria, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and countries of the former Republic of Yugoslavia.

Maribor has also good bus services with other Slovene towns. However, it is recommended to travel by train between most Slovene places and cities, because the railway connections are more frequent and more often than not also cheaper.

Road

Maribor is connected to the motorway network spanning the whole country of Slovenia and connecting to Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy. Parking is generally available as well as at the venue. Note that you need to buy a toll pass - vignette to drive on Slovenian motorways, the cost is 15EUR for one week. Note that the penalty is about 800EUR so do bother to buy one. Austrian has a separate toll pass for their motorways.

Inner city (Public transport)

Public transport is handled by MarProm with most bus lines starting from the main bus station next to the train station.

The venue - Dom Obrambe Pekre is serviced by Line 18 Pekre to a nearby stop Lesjakova 1, running every 30 minutes as well as Line 6 Vzpenjača to the end-stop Vzpenjača, running every 20 minutes, where all the accommodation options are located. There is a 15min walk to the venue.

Bust tickets are 1.1EUR single ride paid on the bus or 0.87EUR if bought in pre-sale with one-time 2.5EUR cost for an RFID card. 20 journey ticket is about 14EUR.

What

In brief: We will deploy a wireless mesh network all over the place, run different routing protocols on top of it, perform some tests and see which routing protocol behaves better. (More Infos about the firmware: BattleMeshV8/Firmware)

Github repository

Battlemesh github repository Here you can find the wibed testbed platform, battlemesh packages (a set of OpenWRT packages to be used at the WBM events), and an OpenWRT mirror.

What to Bring

List of the Hardware Available

Guifi.net/UPC: 10-15 TP-Link WDR 4300

Simon: 5-7 TP-Link WDR 4300

TODO: please write here what you are going to bring

Task List

This task list is kept here to track who is responsible for certain things. Please notify on mailing list before you add yourself here. Local team will be inserted here as well, tasks may be added/merged on the go.